Cherry takes the reins

Onebrokelady

I'm liking the sound of the gingerbread syrup cherryfudge I might have to give that I go, I wonder if that would help with my DDs morning sickness

Cherryfudge

Quite a money-saving day at work! For work, not me: I had the kitchen largely to myself and went about saving a delivery of veggies that was almost past use. I could see them being thrown out when the next delivery comes so I froze some and cooked up others to make a meal for a busy day. I love cooking so I enjoyed finding the optimum uses for a shelf full of produce.

I've been to the shops (for home) so we have bread again, plus various other things. I've made a batch of what Jack Monroe calls 'Hot nurse', a fiery soup to help overcome cold symptoms. I haven't actually tasted it yet, it's going in the freezer against the next round of colds and I'm thinking of renaming it 'Snuffle Buster' as the medically-orientated members of the family might raise their eyebrows at 'hot nurse'.

Getting my receipt would disturb DH but it was £11-something. That included a bag of potatoes for 15p, but some were damaged so we had those tonight as the smell of going-off potatoes is vile. They were nice once trimmed and baked. I've also topped up a few other supplies and am planning a chick pea curry tomorrow, which is cheap and a favourite here.

Two days off! A few things to fit in, mostly a trip to do more Christmas shopping and see if I can get a refund for some items.

Oh, and they say the weather is going to be mild and wet. I guess that's better than cold and wet, and I'm glad the water levels will be replenished between the two. Did anyone else hear the news item about summers like last summer possibly occuring 50% of the time by 2070? I doubt I will be around to see it, but it's not as good a prospect as it sounds... though it was a lovely summer here. I keep dreaming of a winter holiday somewhere in the Med.

Time I got some sleep. Night all.

Onebrokelady

I really enjoyed the summer it reminded me of the summers we used to have when I was growin up and the pavement would melt an stick to your flip flops:rotfl:

WannabeFree

Hope you're feeling better and had a good nights sleep

x

Cherryfudge

I loved the summer too, OBL. One advantage of being off work post-op was that I had weeks and weeks to enjoy it!
I'm over the cold now thanks, Wannabe, though there's still the remains of the cough, and yes thanks, a lovely night's sleep. I didn't get up till about 9.30 which made a nice change. Tomorrow I'll have to be up early if I'm to get a lift to my Christmas shopping venue.
I forgot to mention I found a gift for myself yesterday! An old book... I've taken to doing DH's present shopping for me, LOL.
Yesterday's spending:
Gift £5.00
Housekeeping: £11.87

Now I need to go and make some plans for today rather than wasting it all.

Cherryfudge

I wasted far too much of the day really: didn't get going till well after lunch though having some down time is good, as is catching up on a few diaries.

Today wasn't as MS as it could have been as I forgot to soak the chickpeas so used a tin of them, admittedly not a huge expense but more expensive nonetheless. I also succumbed to a jar of curry sauce although I have ingredients. I just didn't want to spend ages prepping food as I was going out later. The rain finally reached us after I'd hung the washing out and headed to the shops, so everywhere is draped in laundry and I ran the tumble dryer for an hour - distinctly not MS but door-dried towels are not fluffy and we were getting short of drying space.

I thought I'd lost a receipt that I want to query tomorrow but it turned out I'd filed it in the Christmas file. I didn't know if I'll get a refund - it depends how the shelf labelling reads when I get there - but it's worth a try. All set for another onslaught on the shops tomorrow, and a free lift with DS2, though I want to get him some little token of thanks.

I have finally cashed in the remaining money on my travel card! It will go back in the holiday fund: £132's worth! I'm pleased we didn't spend it all. DH had about £40 on his, and I still have some cash that needs to get changed back when I work out where it is. If it were Euros I'd keep it but it will be a while before we travel long distance again.

This evening a friend and I went to a craft evening in aid of a charity for which another friend fund raises. We'd paid for the tickets a while ago, then I bought some raffle tickets (didn't win anything). I did succumb to the refreshments so the diet has suffered accordingly. The weather was totally vile so no chance of me getting much exercise either. However it was a nice evening and I'm glad I went.

Spending:
Tickets (donation) £2.00
Housekeeping £5.08
Kindling for the fire £2.99
MS:
Wombled £1.22
Lots of broccoli on discount so bought and blanched some, now frozen.
£2 coin for the £2 coin pot.
10th coin savings 40p
Favourite Christmas drink now on offer for £1 so bought a bottle and hope to get more on later visits.
Decluttering:
None

HairyHandofDartmoor

Glad you enjoyed the charity evening .

Cherryfudge

Shopping again today and I'm pleased to say I got a full refund for the chocolates. I took a photo of the stand where I'd got them and showed the staff why the sign was misleading, and she refunded straight away.

Most of my shopping has been Christmas presents and food, but I bought myself a hoodie too. I remembered being thoroughly sick of blue and grey by the end of last winter, so this is beige (exciting? ). It's only Primarni so it may not last but for £7 I'm okay with that. I do have a tendency to hang on to favourites when they're past their best, too!

Spending:
Housekeeping £3.45 + 11.90 = 15.35
Gifts: 5 + 10.00 +7.48 +7.99 +7.5 + 5.83 = 43.80 (sorry about leaving in the workings out but they are an aide memoire, my memoire being in need of aid).
Clothing £7.00
Book £2.99
= £69.14 spent today.

All Advent calendars are now bought, and some of the small presents, but no major ones! This Christmas business is expensive and I will admit that at the moment it's going on the credit card rather than dip into savings, even though savings have been built up for it. This is because we used DH's current account and an associated savings account to pay for the stove so it's very low on funds but thankfully he is paid enough nowadays that I can pay the card off on Friday when pay comes in. If it gets lean as the month goes on, well, savings will have to be depleted again. They built up nicely earlier in the year, but we gave them quite a bashing when we bought the stove and had associated building work done. The holiday was funded from a different account and that's still healthy - DH hasn't got enough annual leave left for us to deplete it!

MS:
Took coffee for the journey and was going to buy one at lunchtime but Costalot was busy then DS rang to ask when I wanted to go home so I kind of accidentally didn't buy one.
Some more food bargains. Must stop those till I have more freezer space!
Nice calm shopping so I was thinking more clearly and got some good buys. This ability will decrease as Christmas approaches!
£11 refund, yay!
No train fares - pizza for DS cost a lot less than trains, too.
Confessions:
The book and the hoodie were both more 'want' than 'need' though they will probably be useful.
Using CC

Cherryfudge

Interesting: I just tried to log in to our online banking and got through the first stage of the login before a screen came up to say my 'activation code had expired'. I don't know which that is - if it exists. Something strange about it somehow, or maybe it's just too late at night to think properly. I closed that page down entirely and tried again, this time successfully, and stayed on long enough to check there's still enough money there, which there is.

Now I've logged off and closed those pages. The first attempt at a login wasn't completed so if it was fraudulent they can't have harvested details - it did say that for a CC only account the credit limit would be needed, which seems a bit odd but as mine isn't one of those, it doesn't apply.

I need to go to the bank soon anyway so if I'm organised enough tomorrow I'll go down and ask them about it.

HairyHandofDartmoor

Yes I would ask the bank about it just to be on the safe side.